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The words “miracle” and “hero” are used so freely, often to describe something as trivial as a sporting event, they risk losing meaning.

Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk sets this to rights. It’s a tremendous and thoughtful examination of a signal drama of the Second World War: the 1940 water evacuation of nearly 340,000 endangered Allied soldiers from the Nazi-encircled beaches of the French port city.

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Shot on mega-format IMAX and 70mm film by cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema, who previously lensed Nolan’s space epic Interstellar, this blockbuster spectacle is an intense experience of pure cinema that far exceeds the standard “miracle at Dunkirk” narrative.

A worried soldier scans the sky for German planes in Dunkirk. (Courtesy of Warner Bros. Picture / Warner Bros. photo)

The film delivers a you-are-there sensation that approaches the immersive qualities of virtual reality and which at times is disorienting in its lack of readily accessible screen markers. This includes the face of actor Tom Hardy, which is covered for much of the movie by fighter pilot gear that recalls his character Bane from Nolan’s earlier The Dark Knight Rises.

We’re often left wondering in Dunkirk where the horizon is — as Royal Air Force and Luftwaffe aircraft battle over the English Channel — and in which direction rescue ships large and small are heading. The sights and sounds of battle, as well as the desperate struggle for survival, achieve maximum impact, propelled by Hans Zimmer’s ominous score.

Writer/director Nolan keeps the dialogue, names and personal histories of the participants to an absolute minimum — and what snatches of conversation we do get are often muddled or abruptly terminated, true to the frantic circumstances of the historic eight-day siege.

The encroaching German forces are felt more than seen. They’re like a phantom presence as they close in on hundreds of thousands of members of the British Expeditionary Force, who are stuck on the beaches along with troops from France, Canada, Poland, Belgium and the Netherlands.

“We surround you,” taunts a propaganda pamphlet dropped from the sky, demanding unconditional surrender by the Allies if they wish to avoid certain slaughter.

Politicians are heard from but not seen: Winston Churchill’s “We shall fight on the beaches” speech is read aloud by a soldier from a newspaper report, rather than shown in dramatic recreation.

Nolan admirably succeeds in his expressed intention to depict the Dunkirk evacuation as an improvised struggle for survival rather than the planned military manoeuvre its code-name Operation Dynamo implied. The shallow waters of Dunkirk’s harbour prevented many ships from docking, forcing troops to queue on long narrow jetties to access them.

The biggest of them was a kilometre-long structure called a “mole,” recreated for the film, that pointed like an accusing finger in the direction of England, 42 kilometres away across the oft-treacherous channel.

Dunkirk splits the narrative between land, sea and air, with three major characters representing each: newcomer Fionn Whitehead is Tommy, a British army soldier doggedly seeking to escape encroaching carnage or capture; Mark Rylance is Dawson, a civilian mariner crossing the channel in his small wooden yacht Moonstone to rescue anybody he finds; Hardy is Farrier, an RAF pilot whose job it is to provide air cover for the flotillas of navy vessels and private “little ships” rescuing the troops.

Military authority is represented by two key figures, who keep stoic watch atop the mole: Kenneth Branagh is Commander Bolton — the unflappable naval officer whose job it is to get the troops assembled on the beaches and ready for an orderly evacuation — along with James D’Arcy’s Colonel Winnant, the ranking army officer. Bolton and Winnant are among the few at Dunkirk who are aware of the risky Operation Dynamo plan.

And yes, that’s the voice of Michael Caine over the airwaves, advising Farrier and other RAF flyboys to leave enough fuel in their tanks to make it safely back home, advice that might be forgotten in the heat of battle.

Dunkirk is a far remove from the standard Hollywood war film. There are numerous acts of heroism and also apparent cowardice — but how meaningful are these terms when applied to the many random life-or-death calculations made in the fog of war?

Unlike most war movies, Dunkirk invites us to reflect upon armed conflict rather than celebrate it.

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